the.com/numb
the body's polite way of refusing to feel what it can't handle yet
means Deprived of sensation or feeling, whether physically (as in a cold or pressed limb) or emotionally (as in shock or overwhelm).
from From Middle English 'nomen,' meaning 'taken' or 'seized' — the past participle of 'nimen,' to take or grasp (a cousin of German 'nehmen,' to take). The original sense was 'taken' as in 'seized by paralysis or cold,' a body caught and held still. The 'b' is a later silent intruder, added by analogy with words like 'thumb' and 'limb,' where the spelling outlasted the sound.
- cold trick
- Numbness from cold slows nerve signals to a crawl
- dental origin
- Lidocaine blocks sodium channels so pain never reports in
- phantom feeling
- A numb limb still buzzes with misfiring ghost signals
- word root
- From Old English 'nimen,' meaning taken or seized
- emotional version
- The brain dulls feeling to survive overwhelming stress